Get a grip!

That's the No. 1 rule for parade balloon handlers. No. 2? Not everyone gets to march with SpongeBob.

November 23, 2003|By William Hageman, Tribune staff reporter.

Really, how difficult can it be to hold on to a balloon?

Granted, these are very big balloons, 40-footers or more, that will be part of the State Street Thanksgiving Parade. But with 20 ropes attached and an equal number of handlers, all you have to do is get a grip and start walking, waving and grinning, right?

Well, not exactly.

"It doesn't take that much weight [to hold a balloon down]. But when you factor the wind into the equation, it takes a few people to manage her," said Steve Thomson.

Thomson is the president of Dynamic Displays of Detroit, a company that furnishes giant balloons to parades. And "her" is a 38-foot-tall Strawberry Shortcake balloon that's anchored in the infield at Maywood Park Racetrack, where some 200 parade volunteers are getting a hands-on lesson in balloon wrangling.

"Each rope has a different function," Thomson says as he awaits his first group of handlers. "Obviously, holding [the balloon] down, but what we practice is how to bow down under the elevated tracks, we practice different wind situations. It's Balloon School 101, to teach them how to handle one of these giants."

A warm welcome

The two-hour training session started with the volunteers gathered in the grandstand, listening to welcoming remarks from Jamie Leavitt, an event manager for Chicago Festival Association, which runs the parade. She and Steve Bystriansky of the Chicago Jaycees gave the volunteers the nuts and bolts about the parade, not the least of which was that the average low temperature on Thanksgiving Day is 29 degrees, and the average high is 42.

But there will be warming tents, the volunteers are assured, and each handler will get a nifty red parade stocking cap. (An example is held up; the crowd applauds.) There's also a volunteer party, breakfast on the morning of the parade, a gift bag and a volunteer raffle. All in all, not a bad gig, even if it does start at 6:30 a.m. on a holiday.

Bystriansky lays it out for the crowd in simple terms: "The duties of this volunteer position are pretty simple: Hold on to the balloon."

A show of hands indicates that only 15 to 20 of the volunteers have balloon-handling experience.

Another show of hands indicates that most of the volunteers want to handle the SpongeBob SquarePants balloon.

They should be so lucky.

There will be plenty of balloons to go around--Humpty Dumpty, Kermit the Frog, Frosty the Snowman, Bear in the Big Blue House and Santa Bear, among the 13 in the parade lineup--and handlers often have to go where they're needed.

Jose Martinez and Victor Davila know where they're going.

"We're on the fireman balloon," says Martinez--like Davila one of about a dozen volunteers from the Chicago Police and Fire Academy--who'll be handling the Billy Blazes balloon.

Martinez, Davila and about 50 others are in Thomson's first group of students. (While waiting to get their hands on Strawberry Shortcake, other volunteers get a tour of Maywood's stables, receive handicapping lessons and are treated to lunch.)

Thomson invites a first contingent of 20 volunteers to grab a rope and unleash Strawberry Shortcake from the sandbags that keep her earthbound. Soon, she's standing up. Sort of.

"We want to get her feet about 20 feet up if we can," Thomson tells his troops.

Staying focused

Thomson explains to the handlers that they have three people to focus on as they march: their corresponding handler on the other side of the balloon, the person under and behind the balloon who's carrying the power source, and someone from Dynamic Displays who'll be out front of each balloon, offering direction.

"We want to be safe, ourselves and the balloons," Thomson says. "We want to contribute to the performance, and we want this to be fun for you guys."

They seem to be having fun already. And they don't even have their red stocking caps yet.

They practice walking across the track infield with Strawberry Shortcake. Thomson demonstrates commands, of which there are basically only two: up and down. For up, he lifts his hands quickly and yells "Up!" For down, he stoops and drops this hands to the ground and yells, "Down!" Very technical stuff.

The handlers learn how to deal with the wind, what to do if the balloon starts drifting into the crowd, and how to bring a balloon to earth quickly, face down almost to the ground, the better to sneak under the "L" tracks, street lights or power lines.

Thomson then shows them how to do an about-face (walk clockwise a half-revolution). They march back across the infield to the backstretch. There he has them do a rapid 1 1/2 rotations--the crowd-pleasing spin!--that has the handlers laughing.

"I felt like I was in my own big personal merry-go-round," says Sarah Wallens, a member of City Year, a national youth service organization that does volunteer work in the Chicago area.